IETF RFC Documents MCP server for AI agents

The MCP-Server-IETF provides a Model Context Protocol server that allows Large Language Models to access IETF RFC documents through a standardized interface. This server enables searching and retrieving RFC specifications with features like pagination and metadata extraction.

Installation Requirements

Python 3.11 or higher
Dependencies as listed in pyproject.toml

Installing from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/tizee/mcp-server-ietf
cd mcp-server-ietf

# Install with pip
pip install -e .

Running the Server

Start the server using the command:

# Start the server
mcp-server-ietf

Alternatively, you can use it with the MCP inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run mcp-server-ietf

Available Tools

The MCP server provides several tools for accessing RFC documents:

List Documents Count

Use list_docs_number to get the total number of RFC documents available in the index.

Retrieve RFC Document

Use get_doc to fetch an RFC document by its number with pagination support.

Parameters:

number: The RFC number (e.g., "1234")
start_line: The line number to start from (default: 1)
max_lines: Maximum number of lines to return (default: 200)

Search RFCs by Keyword

Use search_rfc_by_keyword to find RFC documents by searching for keywords in their titles.

Parameters:

keyword: The search term to look for in RFC titles

Configuration

Cache Location

By default, the server caches RFC documents and the index at ~/.cache/ietf-doc-server.

Environment Variables

LOG_LEVEL: Set the logging level (default: "DEBUG")

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "mcp-server-ietf" '{"command":"mcp-server-ietf","args":[]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "mcp-server-ietf": {
            "command": "mcp-server-ietf",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "mcp-server-ietf": {
            "command": "mcp-server-ietf",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect